The Upland Geese At The Falklands Show, By
The Precaution They Take In Building On The Islets, That They
Are Aware Of Their Danger From The Foxes; But They Are Not
By This Rendered Wild Towards Man.
This tameness of the
birds, especially of the water-fowl, is strongly contrasted with
the habits of the same
Species in Tierra del Fuego, where for
ages past they have been persecuted by the wild inhabitants.
In the Falklands, the sportsman may sometimes kill more
of the upland geese in one day than he can carry home;
whereas in Tierra del Fuego it is nearly as difficult to kill
one, as it is in England to shoot the common wild goose.
In the time of Pernety (1763), all the birds there appear
to have been much tamer than at present; he states that the
Opetiorhynchus would almost perch on his finger; and that
with a wand he killed ten in half an hour. At that period
the birds must have been about as tame as they now are at
the Galapagos. They appear to have learnt caution more
slowly at these latter islands than at the Falklands, where
they have had proportionate means of experience; for besides
frequent visits from vessels, those islands have been at
intervals colonized during the entire period. Even formerly,
when all the birds were so tame, it was impossible by Pernety's
account to kill the black-necked swan - a bird of
passage, which probably brought with it the wisdom learnt
in foreign countries.
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